1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to playing digital media content and, more specifically, to techniques and systems for creating a dynamic playlist for managing the playback of digital media content.
2. Introduction
In recent years, electronic devices capable of playing digital music have become commonplace. For instance, electronic devices such as laptop computers, handheld digital media players, smart phones, and handheld gaming systems are used daily by society to listen to music. As a result of the growing popularity of these electronic devices, the sale of digital music has grown dramatically. Users can utilize various avenues to access digital music, including visiting an online store to purchase digital music as a single track or a complete album. Users can also share their music with one another or stream music online.
As the amount of digital media available to a user increases, improved techniques must be applied to organize and manage this information. Traditionally, playlists have been used to organize the music into collections, and, through a selection of a song or through a selection of a playlist from such collections, the music can be played. The playlists would be stored persistently and be selectable by the consumer when he or she wishes to play the songs associated with the playlist. However, these traditional techniques are very limiting in that they require the overhead of creating a playlist and storing it. Moreover, the traditional playlist environment is not well suited for dynamic changes to a consumer's desires. For example, assume that a student is playing music from a playlist in his dorm room. His friend comes into his room and wants to listen to a song that is not in the currently playing playlist. Traditionally, selecting the one song to play would terminate playback of the playlist or the song would be added into the persistent playlist, thus becoming a part of the playlist. Both of these behaviors are undesirable to the student, who would like to continue listening to his playlist after his friend listens to the song, and would not desire to have the friend's selection added to his playlist.
While there have been many advancements in the use and distribution of digital media, there is still a need for improved techniques for managing playback of digital media.